Coleman Crawdad any good?

[JBplusThuy]

Anybody have an experience with the Coleman Crawdad? Somebody's selling one locally with a trailer and a bunch of accessories. Looks nice in the pic but before I drive 60 miles to check it out in person, hoping for an opinion or two. Seems really hard to find reviews of them online.

Thanks!

Jonathan

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

Gheenoes are sweet, when you can find them. Even then they tend to command prices somewhere near the stratosphere.

[JBplusThuy]

What's a jack plate/what does it do?

[Lord of the Fly , Rods]

A jack plate mounts between the transom and the outboard and has an electric motor that raises or lower the height of the motor  to either raise it off the bottom in shallow water or control the bow rise trying to get the boat on plane.  LOFR

[Tony Livingston]

Here's what I use, I love this thing!

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

"Tony's Pond Piddler"

[JBplusThuy]

Those are pretty cool! If I were purely a one-man fishing operation, I'd probably already have one of those.

I just missed a nice Livingston this weekend (somebody got there before me and bought it) but there are a couple more on Craigslist now, will take a look at them. They probably don't get into the ultra-shallow places that jon boats do, but still not bad because they are small, and that catamaran hull is nice and stable.

Jonathan

[Dwayne Denison]

nice setup, Tony

[James Sullivan aka Jimmy/Sully]

ANY time your in a 10-12' "Crawdad...Livingston.. or w/e" 1-2 people is MAX.. even for small childern. PLUS just invision a "problem"....  IF your taking kids out "SAFETY" is paramount... these boats are for 1 or 2 AVERAGE sized people... The body of water you fish is also a serious consideration... As freeboard quickly disappears w/weight added to boat.

Good Luck finding what you need....but, BE SAFE..

[Tony Livingston]

Definitely. Back when I used to fish southern Indiana's strip pits I would haul my little boat everywhere, and a buddy and I would spend all day cruising those lakes. But...those were calm waters, and limited to electric propulsion, so the lack of freeboard wasn't an issue.

That little boat will fit into the bed of a full size pickup with the tailgate shut and just barely be taller than the wheelwells........ not want you want with two passengers and some chop on the water. Been there, been nervous.

[JBplusThuy]

Question:. According to Livingston (http://www.livingstonboats.com/faqs.html) the capacity of a Livingston 12' is 4 people/682 pounds/15 HP (or 20 if remote). Interestingly, the Livingston 10' is also 4 people/700, just with a lower HP rating (10/15). Is Livingston being overly optimistic in that rating (which AFAIK requires Coast Guard approval and over which they could potentially be sued if somebody followed the rating and it caused an accident), or are you taking the worst case/most conservative case? Not that there's anything wrong with that; I see people do dumb things all the time because they didn't think about safety, like the guy who ran a downhill red light on a bicycle this morning and almost broadsided my can at a speed high enough to hospitalize himself; but I digress. Glad he didn't hit me, even though it would have served him right.

I'm all for safety and it is paramount. One of my rules is that nobody gets in my boat without a life jacket (including me) and they keep it on. Rental boats typically only provide them for children and just have a floating boat cushion (if that) for adults. Doesn't seem to make sense, since if everybody goes in the water and the adult on board drowns, who's gonna keep the kids calm and make sure they get to shore, or at least hang onto the overturned boat if shore is too far away? Sure saves them money on the life jacket, though. Even when they seem somebody fishing alone, they just give a boat cushion. Fat lot of good the cushion will do if it's in the boat and the fisherman's in the water.

[Tony Livingston]

I think in this day and age a manufacturer will opt to be conservative, especially where safety issues are involved. Our society can be very quick on the trigger where perceived negligence on the part of the company/manufacturer is suspected, irregardles of whether or not plain common sense, or lack thereof, played a part in the mishap.

On a different note, how could you go wrong with a boat that has such a great name............ :)

[JBplusThuy]

So you're one of *those* Livingstons, are you? ;-)